Remember when baseball was fun? Jays lose

Blue Jays 3 Red Sox 8

That was a rough night, we didn’t pitch well, field well or hit well.

It started bad, Curtis Granderson walked and then was thrown out at second trying to move up on a ball in the dirt. It was just bad, the ball didn’t get away from the catcher and he was thrown out very easily. It was a sign of things to come.

In our half of the inning, with one out Xander Bogaerts hit a fly at Grandson, Granderson gave up on it and played it off the wall, but it hit the bottom of the wall, he could have caught it easy. Mitch Moreland hit a ball down the right field line that Teoscar Hernandez was very slow chasing it down, turning it into a double. By the time the inning was over we were down 2-0.

We gave up another run in the second, again helped by crappy defense. Sandy Leon hit a ball to right that should have been caught, but Teoscar took a slow and bad route, turning it into a double. It cost us a run when Andrew Benintendi hit a legitimate double with 2 outs.

And 1 more in the fourth. Brock Holt singled and stole second. Luke Maile’s throw would have caught him, but Yangervis Solarte dropped the throw. Jackie Bradley would drive him home.

Marco Estrada was pulled after 3.2 and he hasn’t great, he gave up a fair bit of hard contact, but he really could have used some help from his defense.

Offensively, we didn’t do much. We had a run in the fourth on a solo homer from Justin Smoak.

And we got two in an interesting seventh. With 1 out, Russell Martin up and he called time, admittedly quite late, and tapped his chest saying ‘my bad’, but Rick Porcello apparently took offense and hit Russell in the shoulder with the next pitch.

A) I think it is stupid to hit a batter for calling time, it is the umpire’s fault for awarding him time.

B) If you you are hitting someone on purpose, DON’T THROW HIGH. It shouldn’t be shoulder high, where it could easily hit a guy in the head, it should be at the lower body.

We had 3 guys hit tonight.

Anyway, after the hit batter Kendrys Morales walked, Devon Travis singled, loading the bases and Curtis Granderson drove in 2 with a single. Suddenly we had the tying run at the plate. Unfortunately Kevin Pillar struck out.

We had 7 hits. Kendrys was the only Jay with 2 hits, a single and a hard hit double.

Hitless tonight were Pillar (4 strikeouts, just a terrible time at the plate, moved into the 2 spot in the order in Josh Donaldson’s absence), Solarte, Hernandez (who was awful on offense and defense) and Maile (2 strikeouts).

The bullpen was up and down:

• Aaron Loup allowed just a walk while getting 4 outs. He’s been terrific lately.
• Joe Biagini had an unlucky sixth inning, giving up a run on 3 soft hits (including an infield double which deflected off his glove and got past Travis who couldn’t course correct in time) and then gave up a crushed leadoff homer in the 7th, ending his night.
• Tyler Clippard took over for Joe and got 3 quick outs.
• Danny Barnes hit a batter, standing up for Martin. Danny did it right, hitting the batter in the backside. I’m not a fan of intentionally hitting someone, but Barnes did it right. He also gave up a homer to Sandy Leon, adding 2 to the Red Sox score.

Jay of the Day: I’m giving one to Aaron Loup.

Suckage? Estrada (-.211), Pillar (-.161), Maile (-.096) and I’m giving one to Teoscar for terrible defense, and Solarte for his 0 for and his misplay. Granderson’s 2-run single saves him from the honor.

Minor Leaguer suggested the title.

We had 655 comments in the GameThread. Alan F. led us to crushing defeat again.